Poland's new government wants talks with Germany on regional issues

Reuters Staff

2 Min Read

WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland’s Law and Justice party, which won last month’s election, does not want to worsen relations with neighboring Germany but does want talks on issues separating the two countries, the potential new foreign minister said on Wednesday.

”There are a few issues that are dividing us,“ Witold Waszczykowski told the public television channel TVP Info. ”For example, in relation to security in our region, Germany does not share our fears.

“They also do not share our fears over energy problems, and these are the issues that need to be talked over,” said Waszczykowski, a deputy foreign minister in the previous government led by the party, in 2005 to 2007.

The euro-sceptic party antagonized Germany and other big European powers in 2007, when party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski, then the prime minister, invoked the number of Poles killed by the Nazis in World War Two to justify demands for greater voting power within the EU.

The party has toned down its anti-European Union rhetoric since then. Among other reasons, Warsaw needs cooperation from other EU states to sustain sanctions on Russia over its annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula and its role in destabilizing eastern Ukraine.

(This version of the story was refiled to restore missing word in second paragraph)